Horror Is a Color in Our Rainbow

 A Halloween poem about horror as part of our nature:

 

Horror is a color in our rainbow,

A chimerical, spectral inner arc of black.

Light bursting through the prism of our dreams

Lingers as a set of separate beams,

Of which pure terror is a prominent track,

Where we may feel our bones freeze to the marrow,

Exercising instincts else gone slack.

Nor does all truth lie tucked between two seams.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Don’t Look Inside. By Biz Baz Studio. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/horro4.html. For more poems for Halloween, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

Death Came to Me When I Was at a Meeting

An Epitaph for a Social Activist

 

Death came to me while I was at a meeting,
Opened up my chest and wandered in.
Nor did it leave until a few days later,
Satisfied it need not come again.
It was a death both unforeseen and fitting,
Living as I did for what I did,
Being one averse to merely being,
Engaged in service to the world I would.
Remember me, then, as I was when death
Made its sudden entrance to my heart:
Attentive in my seat, my wife beside me,
Night come, the meeting just about to start.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Elegy. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/death2.html. For more epitaphs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/epitaphs.html .

The Right to Live as Distinct Peoples

 Adapted from The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

 

Indigenous peoples have the collective right

To live as distinct peoples

And shall not be subjected to

Any act of genocide

Or other act of violence,

Including the forcible

Removal their children.

 

Indigenous peoples have the right

Not to be subjected to forced assimilation

Or the destruction of their culture.

 

States shall prevent

Any action that has the aim or effect

Of depriving them of their integrity

As distinct peoples,

Or of their cultural values

Or ethnic identities;

Or dispossessing them

Of their lands, territories, or resources;

Or any form of forced population transfer;

Or any form of forced assimilation or integration;

Or any form of propaganda

Designed to promote or incite

Racial or ethnic discrimination

Directed against them.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Borderless. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/theri4.html. For more poems for Indigenous Peoples Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

Yes, There Is a Lot One Need Atone for

 A poem for Yom Kippur about the need to atone for what you failed to do as much as for what you did:

 

Yes, there is a lot one need atone for.

One is in this pickle every year.

Maybe progress is too much to ask for,

Knowing how few angels live down here.

In fact, one must atone for what one didn't,

Perhaps as much or more than what one did.

Perhaps one's most egregious evil isn't

Understood till one lifts up the lid,

Revealing what one's life of privilege hid.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Allégro. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yesthe.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

Remorse Is Not a Synonym for Shame

 A poem for Rosh Hashanah comparing remorse to shame:

Remorse is not a synonym for shame.

One is mainly outer; the other, inner.

So might fear of shame deter a sinner

Hidden 'neath the gilt of a good name.

 

However, remorse comes from within, a feeling

Arisen from the grave of innocence,

Still haunted by a mystic moral sense

Hemorrhaging a sorrow that is healing.

 

A fear of shame requires imagination,

Needing an imaginative eye,

As remorse needs an imaginative I

Harrowed by empathic transformation.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Nocturne. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/remors.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

Sing for All the Years You Have Been Granted

 A 70^th birthday poem of celebration for the gifts of life:

 

Sing for all the years you have been granted,
Each blessing sing, each child, girl and boy!
Verses sing for all the things you've wanted:
Each victory, each pleasure, and each joy!
No matter age or illness, sing undaunted,
Though you may be by dreams or memories haunted,
Yet sing, and life and love this day enjoy!

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Pouring Out. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/singfo.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

The Night My Heart Stopped

 A poem about a moment of silent communication between the poet and a racoon:

The night my heart stopped
I was sleeping with my wife
In a tent at the edge of a wood.

The Earth spun and spun.
Silent, in a cold sweat,
I felt myself going under.

I crawled out of the tent,
Careful not to wake my wife,
And onto a chaise lounge.

Under the spinning stars
My heart started and stopped,
Started and stopped, started . . .

I lay where a path emerged
From the wood, and along the path
Came a large raccoon.

He walked over to me
And raised himself up
Not four feet from my eyes.

We stared at each other
With focused understanding,
Words without words,

Eyes beyond eyes,
A giving and a taking
That stilled my raucous heart.

Satisfied, he lowered
Himself to the ground
And turned toward the wood.

"Thank you, brother," I said,
"Thank you." But he was gone,
Slipped back into darkness.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Falling Snow. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/theni2.html. For more poems about animals, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/animalpoems.html .

Happy Fifteenth Anniversary

 A 15^th anniversary poem comparing marriage to two trees planted close together:

 

Happy fifteenth anniversary!

A long time to be planted side by side!

Praised be those whose love and faith abide.

Praised be those who would deep rooted be.

Years entangle closely planted trees,

From canopy to root together tied,

Interwoven tightly, so that eyed

Full flower, which is which is hard to see.

Two trunks, one greater whole, both root and branch,

Each able to withstand a stronger wind,

Each more intact together than alone.

Nor is this close proximity by chance,

This will to be so intimately combined,

Having each for each shed leaves on stone.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Kiss the Sky. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hap103.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

Labor's a Commodity, like Fish

 

A Labor Day poem about the evil of treating labor like any other commodity:

 

Labor's a commodity, like fish,

As children are fast-frozen and filleted,

Beating down the price. Fortunes are made

On selling to us all so cheap a dish.

Remember how the world is being run,

Determined by the market's iron laws

As slaves and children jingle in its jaws.

Yet is there nothing, nothing to be done?

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chariots of War. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labors.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

Eighty-Two Lives by a Waterfall

 A philosophical number poem about the simultaneous experience of time and eternity:

 

Eighty-two lives by a waterfall,

In tune with time and the music of its flow.

Grace holds its tongue as one goes through its song,

Here for aye, though no one’s here for long,

Time falling, falling to the rocks below,

Yet fluttering in place like a wind-blown shawl.

 

To be for just one breath is to be all.

Words are ripples of what one might know.

One flows beneath what one gets right or wrong.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Wandering Soul. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/82a.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

Sing of Life That, Though It Has an End

 A philosophical number poem about the experience of eternity within time:

Sing of life that, though it has an end,

Embodies what does not and will be ever,

Viewpoint on eternity that lends

Existence the illusion of forever.

Nor should one fail to recognize this gift

That one shares ultimately with quince and slime:

Years down which one’s little boat may drift,

Taking one through landscapes beyond time.

How beautiful to live and simply be,

Removed from time by love and reverence.

Each moment is a brief eternity;

Each eon also, though not quite so dense.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: Chords of Harmony. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to sing22.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

Factor In the Fickleness of Fortune

 A number poem about how best to dream as one gets older:

 

Factor in the fickleness of fortune

In calculating charts that can be read.

For though the numbers do not lie, the data

Trend towards unknown variables instead.

Yet one must dream, albeit with more caution.

 

There is no substitute for an equation.

When one’s a certain age, there is less later.

One dreams more wisely as one looks ahead.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Timeless. By Lauren Duski. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/facto2.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

For What Does One Live, but for Goodness and Beauty

 

A number poem about the beauty of a life devoted to art:

 

For what does one live, but for goodness and beauty?

One’s goodness is beauty; one’s beauty is good.

Remember that when what one loves is one’s duty,

To labor brings one all the joy that one would.

Yet this does not always work out as it should.

 

Fear not the days of frustration and sorrow;

Old wounds reopened, new ones unhealed.

Undaunted by pain, you’ll turn back to tomorrow,

Renewed by the love that sustains your ideal.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: White River. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/forwh2.html. For more poems about a variety of professions, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

Seventeen Is Such a Lovely Age

 A number poem about being seventeen:

 

Seventeen is such a lovely age,

Ever on the edge of something new!

Vested in a multitude of plans,

Even as the calendar commands.

No choice has yet been made that one need rue,

Though soon, perhaps too soon, time turns the page.

Even at this sweet rehearsal stage,

Each must reduce the many to the few,

Needing dreams to comb through tangled strands.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Lifting Dreams. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/17d.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

To Love Is to Be Naked to the Wind

 A love poem about a new romance:

 

To love is to be naked to the wind,

Holding hands with someone you can’t know.

Invested in a bond that seems secure,

Resisting what seems graceless and less sure,

Trusting in a gift none can bestow,

You turn to one and leave the rest behind.

 

Nothing is more beautiful or pure,

Innocent, quixotic, gentle, kind.

Nor have you any hint how it will go

Except a will that this romance endure.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Forever Yours. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/tolove.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

My Heart Is like a Symphony

 A poem, never sent, from a mother to a child whom she was forced to surrender:

 

My heart is like a symphony
That sings of only pain.
Of all that makes a life worthwhile,
Only you remain.

Only in the thought of you
Safe and cared for well
Can I find happiness within
My self-inflicted hell.

Only in my love for you
Is there sufficient grace
For me to want to live at all
In this forsaken place.

Ah, God! Were life not beautiful
And love not full of light,
I could, perhaps, embrace the rage
Of an embittered night.

But as it is, I cannot help
But hope for what might be:
That though I gave you up, you might
Someday, somehow love me.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: E Minor Prelude. By Frederic Chopin. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/myhea.html. For more poems to children, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/childrenpoems.html .

Beware of Inequalities Too Wide

 

A Bastille Day poem about the dangers of allowing inequalities between classes to grow too wide:

 

Beware of inequalities too wide

And chasms that cannot be bridged by dreams.

Societies fray first along the seams,

Then rip apart, exposing rot inside.

In chaos hopes for liberty abide;

Life in its Edenic newness gleams;

Longing is more brutal than it seems;

Ecstatic demons 'cross the wastelands glide.

Do, then, recall the day of the Bastille

As one whose burst of glory would reveal

Yearnings that would stain the turning tide.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Bittersweet. By SYBS. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bewar2.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

Identity Requires Memory

 

A poem for Independence Day (USA) about the importance of knowing one’s nation’s history:

 

Identity requires memory.

No less than people, nations must recall

Days past, lest they wander witlessly,

Erased each moment, guided by the wind,

Pushed by lusts no wisdom can forestall.

Events are facts that one cannot rescind,

Nor can forgetting consequence forego.

Despite one's wish, the past is not behind:

Even now, it works its wayward will,

Nor can we understand what we don't know.

Contain your cavils, then, and snide thoughts still,

Even as we celebrate our story,

Described with all the clarity and skill

A scholar can sustain in heart and mind,

Yielding what for now is history.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Borderless. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/identi.html. For more poems for Independence Day (USA), go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

 

Everything We Give Was Never Ours

 A poem for Eid al-Adha about what it means to give a gift:

 

Everything we give was never ours.

It was a gift, as was life itself.

Dependent as we are, like fragile flowers,

An unborn soul is seed upon God's shelf.

Let yourself then meditate on this:

A sacrifice can be no sacrifice.

Death leaves one with nothing one might miss.

How can one think one owns what has no price,

As every gift one gives is given thrice.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Pachabelly. By Huma Huma. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ever14.html. For more Eid al-Adha poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/eidaladhapoems.html .

Fear Not, for the World Is Full of Beauty

 A Father’s Day poem to the almost-father of several miscarriages.

 

Fear not, for the world is full of beauty,

And love’s the song that brings it all to life.

Those who don’t have children often might

Have other songs to sing of joyful duty.

Even so, one ought to feel the longing

Reverberating through one’s canyon walls

‘Mid all the other lost dreams one recalls,

So that one’s sorrows might enrich one’s singing.

Days like these remind one of the loss,

Allow one to feel pain without remorse,

Yielding to the loveliness of being.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: No. 2 Remembering Her. By Esther Abrami. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fearn3.html .  For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

There Is No Lasting Love Without Compassion

 

A wedding poem about the need for compassion in marriage:

 

There is no lasting love without compassion,

Requisite for generosity,

As all good lovers know they ought to be:

Caring partners even in their passion.

Yet some might view their spouse as a possession,

Judging them as a commodity,

One that fits, or not, some fantasy,

Here to serve some self-absorbed obsession.

No marriage can succeed without both lovers,

As each must give far more than they will get

To get far more than they might ever give.

How else might lovers reach, beyond all others,

A greater whole, beyond joy or regret,

Not least beyond self, as we were meant to live.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: Just Stay. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/theri3.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

Make My Sorrow Pride

 

A Memorial Day poem in which a mourner begs for relief from pain:

 

Make my sorrow pride.

Enter me with light.

Mourning turns to morning,

Or so I would believe.

Reach me with your tide.

Inundate this blight.

Awaken me with longing,

Lest I live to grieve.

 

Deaf, dumb, blind inside,

All I am is night,

Yet too frail to leave.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: If You Close Your Eyes I’m Still with You. By Late Night Feeler. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/makem2.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

Sister Margaret's Been Here Many Years

 A name poem for a much-loved Catholic school teacher.

 

Sister Margaret's been here many years
In service to the children and the Lord.
She’s one lovely note within a chord
Too vast and beautiful for human ears.
Even those who've carved out bright careers
Remember long and fondly one who gave
More love to them than their young hearts could save,
A river sweeping through their childhood tears;
Remember, too, the beauty of a life
Given as an act of charity,
All of it, not one desire held back.
Ruled by need, they pause in harmony,
Even in the midst of daily strife,
To see in her a passion that they lack.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Elegy. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree. com/margar.html. For more poems about teachers, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/teacherspoems.html .

Lately, I've Been Having Vivid Dreams

 A psychological poem about the vivid dream of a mother with a brain tumor:

 

"Lately I've been having vivid dreams,"
You said. "Perhaps it is the drugs, or perhaps
The tumor presses hard against my brain.
In any case, I've seen some lovely things,
Things I have not thought of many years,
Come back now with such yearning, such delight,
That I could weep for joy to be alive.
I dreamed we were at Grandma Rifka's house,
Your father, I, and Rifka in the dark,
Silent for the things we could not say.
The moon invaded, and cold beams like ice
Came in among us, crystallized the air,
And like cold spokes transfixed us where we were.
We could not move nor speak, though within me
There feebly stirred a wish to set things right.
The frozen air held us, ice like stars.
Then you came in, waved hello, smiled,
A large guitar slung over your left shoulder,
On your right a child just emerged from sleep,
And I was happy. The air grew warm,
Light came from you and danced among the stars.
The moonbeams melted, once again we talked,
We said the little things that cover darkness,
You laughed and life flowed in us once again.
In a moment I was weeping, you asked why.
I said I didn't know. Was it relief?
No, it was the beauty of the moment
As it poured burning, dying through my heart."

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Arms of Heaven. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/vivid.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

Have No Fear, for Love Is All Around You

 A Mother’s Day poem from a parent to a child who is now also a mother:

 

Have no fear, for love is all around you.
All come helpless from a common womb.
Perhaps you do not know that love surrounds you.
Perhaps you do not know that you're in bloom.
Yet mothers, too, are children, ever loved,
Minded by the living and the dead,
Old enough to give, as time has proved,
The need no less, though time and tears have fled.|
Have faith that love's a mystic tide that flows
Equally to and from the heart,
Returning, turning as it comes and goes,
'Mid moon and moon your sea, your song, your art.
Sing, then, of this moment of your giving,
Deep within the ebb and flow of living.
All you feel is what was felt for you,
Yearning your own yearning will renew.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Angel’s Dream. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/haveno.html. For more Mother’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mothersdaypoems.html .

I Cannot Tell You How Much I Have Loved You

 

A poem from a parent to an adult child about the beauty of parental love:

I cannot tell you how much I have loved you,
Nor give you an accounting of my joy,
Nor share with you the hopes with which I've held you,
Nor shadow forth the dreams I would employ.
You cannot know the pleasure that you gave me,
Nor grasp the grace in which I've spent my days,
Nor understand the standing that would save me
Whenever darkness met my morning gaze.
You've been to me a moment everlasting,
Though lasting but the moment of us all,
And given me a glimpse of what, in passing,
Must pass for what awaits beyond the wall.
Such love I wish for you as I have known,
But that must come from children of your own.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: Forever Yours. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/icann3.html. For more poems to children, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/childrenpoems.html .

Palpably, You Are in This Room

 A Passover poem about the presence of God at the Seder:

 Palpably, You are in this room,
A presence just as certain as our own,
Singing with us -- family friend, well-known --
Someone, not just something we assume.
One can know You only intimately.
Vast as You are, You fit into our home.
Every tick of life we're not alone,
Rejoicing in a love we feel and see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 Audio and Video Music: Dream of the Ancestor. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/palpab.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html . 

As You Hike Through Public Land

 A poem for Arbor Day about the value of uncut trees:

As you hike through public land
Reserved for public good,
Be aware that public air
Outbids the price of wood.
Remember life is brief, is fragile,
Dangling in a breeze,
As you breathe in oxygen
You owe to uncut trees.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: White River. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/asyouh.html. For more Arbor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/arbordaypoems.html . 

Estimated Wait Time Is Forever

 

A poem for Eid al-Fitr, which occurs at the end of Ramadan, about faith as a journey rather than a visitation.

Estimated wait time is forever.
In faith, The Moment neither comes nor goes.
Does one dress one's thoughts in what seems clever,
Allowing for a frequent change of clothes?
Let love translate for your timeless soul.
Faith's a journey, not a visitation.
If one would risk a purpose and a role,
Then one should live by love's interpretation,
Rendering each partial person whole.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: Wander. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/estima.html. For more poems for Ramadan, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

 THIRTY-FOUR'S DEVOTED TO A DREAM

A Philosophical Number Poem for Someone Who Has Devoted His Life to Social Change

Thirty-four’s devoted to a dream,
Hard at work each day to make it real.
If what-is-not’s not easy to conceive,
Requiring an acolyte to weave
Tapestries that catch its look and feel,
Yet such labors are what make it gleam.

For art must open what faith tends to seal,
Open to make flesh what one believes,
Unafraid to be, and not just mean,
Rich precisely where ideas are lean.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: Allégro. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/34sdev.html. For more poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

Here Are Festive Flowers for Your Room

 An Easter friendship poem about the limits of friendship:

Here are festive flowers for your room,
A spray of springtime on your bare night table:
Placed upon a place within your view,
Placed where best to light your harried heart.
Yet my blossoms can’t dispel your gloom,
Even were they many times more able.
All that gifts from loving friends can do
Sings just one unaccompanied inner part.
The music cannot come from aught but you,
Evangelist beside the empty tomb,
Rejoicing in the grace of life and art.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Forever Yours. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/herear.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html .

Seventy-Three Suspends Her Animation

Dear Reader,

I have decided to resurrect my former blog, Poem of the Day, as Poem of the Week, publishing each week a different poem from my website, Poems for Free (https://www.poemsforfree.com).

This week, the Poem of the Week is a number poem for a woman who both embraces her feminine role and at the same time dreams of one less self-sacrificing:

Seventy-three suspends her animation,
Eloping for a moment with a dream,
Vividly devouring each sensation,
Each image that means more than it can mean.
Nor can her love reality redeem.
Time moves on, and she comes back to life,
Yearning for the woman in the wife.

The love of husband, children, grandchildren,
Has been a garden long and faithfully tended,
Resulting in a peaceful, well-earned beauty,
Enduring pleasure she would not want ended,
Embrace she chooses out of more than duty.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/73susp.html. For more poems about feminism, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/feminismpoems.html .

Given the Fragility of Life

May 23, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is health.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A get-well-soon poem for someone who has recently come through surgery:

Given the fragility of life,
Each of us remains a miracle,
Though new emerged from some bright sea of pain.
When every second feels just like a knife
Entering the soft flesh of the will,
Life whispers soon we will be well again.
Linger, then, along the edge of shade;
Soon enough you will be in the sun,
Open-armed, erect, and unafraid.
Old wounds remind us of fierce battles won,
Nor will our patient faith not be repaid.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/givent.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Health.
May 17: Perhaps You Think that, Yes, You Are an Island
May 18: I Wear My Mask for You
May 19: Zzzoom
May 20: After the Virus
Mat 21: I Pray for You and Wish I Could Do More
May 22: O Lord, Help Me Be a Burden
May 23: Given the Fragility of Life

Note: Google has decided to discontinue Feedburner, the free service that sends you this daily email. At the age of 80, I have decided that this would be a good time for me to discontinue the Poem of the Day. This will be the last Poem of the Day email.

I will still be posting a new Poem of the Week each week at my Web site (https://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html), as well as regularly adding new poems, drama, and fiction to the site. And you are welcome to follow me on:
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/PoemsbyNicholasGordon)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/poems_for_free)
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyyixnna5SPO5EIe4IAKkXQ)
and Twitter (https://twitter.com/poemsforfree).

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick